MR DELIVERY MAN
Perhaps you’d be surprised to learn that in a corner of one of the world’s busiest cities, there’s a statue devoted to patience. At all hours of the day and night, Tokyo’s Shibuya district is a hectic blur of humanity orbiting a major road junction and public transport hub. As folk dash to and from the hundreds of trains that rattle through the station every day, they pass a clump of trees within which stands a stone statue of a dog. His name is Hachikō and he stares, longingly, at a green railway carriage.
The story of this dog is now part of Japanese folklore. In the 1920s, Hachikō would wait at Shibuya station every day for his owner, Professor Ueno, to return from work at Tokyo University. One evening Ueno failed to appear, having suffered a fatal cerebral haemorrhage, but Hachikō continued to wait patiently, so the story goes, returning to the same spot every day for nine years.
On the Wednesday before the Japanese Grand Prix, a crowd of loyal fans surrounded Hachikō’s shrine. But they weren’t there to pay homage to the fidelity of the stone-cast akita; they were waiting for a real-life icon: Fernando Alonso. It was a long wait, but he was on his way, ready to reward their patience and fealty.
Sadly, Fernando was about to experience the downside of being too popular…
LAST YEAR, ALONSO HAD STARTED
to plan a new business venture with a couple of close friends. They considered starting a cycling team or a restaurant, but settled on a clothing brand. And so Kimoa came into being, with T-shirts,
IT WASN’T EASY FINDING THEIR HOUSES BUT WHEN WE DID THE REACTION OF EVERYONE WAS VERY SURPRISED FERNANDO ALONSO
shorts, caps and sunglasses themed around a Californian surfing and skateboard lifestyle. Think of a group of friends enjoying the sunset in Malibu or Venice beach and you get the picture.
Kimoa’s designs are inspired by Alonso’s love of the ocean, and the name is based on the Hawaiian word for those who sit and watch the sunset together. “I come from Oviedo in the north of Spain, close to the sea, so I used to be on the beach every morning, on the Atlantic side with its big waves,” says Alonso. “When I moved to Switzerland, the thing I missed the most was the sea, so in the future I will live close to the waves again. The sea, the sun, my friends – that lifestyle – that’s what Kimoa stands for.”
Any start-up needs publicity, even one founded by a sports star, and that’s why Alonso’s label came up with a dual-pronged campaign for the hyper-trendy Japanese market in the run-up to the grand prix. Speaking to us at Suzuka, Fernando takes up the story: “We ran a promotion that we launched ten days before the race for all our Japanese fans. If they had placed an order with Kimoa, then we said there would be a surprise for them. The surprise was that I was the delivery man…”
A couple of days before practice began at Suzuka, two lucky customers got the shock of their lives when Alonso came knocking at the doors of their Tokyo apartments. The first, clad in Ghostbusters-patterned shorts, was clearly overwhelmed when the hoodie he’d bought was hand-delivered by the fashion label’s owner himself. He soon composed himself, welcomed Fernando into his home and offered him a drink. Then Alonso was back on his skateboard, riding through the streets of the Japanese capital to hand-deliver the next Kimoa item, this time to the owner of a dry cleaners. He went on to meet the owner’s father, his mother and his uncle – all of them wanting to capture the bizarre moment on their phone cameras.
“It wasn’t easy finding their houses, but when we did, everyone was very surprised,” says Alonso. “They were very kind. We went inside and were introduced to their family and sat on their sofa and had a drink. We had a good time.”
Kimoa’s second project in Tokyo that day was a little more ambitious. The plan was to encourage any fans wearing Kimoa gear to congregate at the Shibuya Crossing and perform
a Mexican wave – a clever link to the sea. Photographers positioned in high-rise buildings in the vicinity would capture the moment, with Alonso at the centre of the wave.
The Shibuya Crossing is arguably the busiest in the world. It’s essentially a large crossroads, but instead of having just one junction at a time stopping traffic to allow pedestrians to cross over, all four junctions display red lights for vehicles, letting commuters cross in any direction they want – even diagonally. At peak times up to 1,000 people can be on the junction at once and the time to cross is limited before the lights turn to green again.
It has become something of a pilgrimage for the Formula 1 fraternity as they fly from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo between the Malaysian and Japanese GP double-header. The day before the Kimoa stunt, Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene was spotted at the crossing, while drivers including Romain Grosjean paid visits this year.
As the Kimoa fans began to gather in Shibuya, the crowd swelled beyond the numbers usually expected here, alerting authorities to the fact that something unusual was going on. This meant a further delay to the stunt as Alonso’s team negotiated with law-enforcement officers.
“The police contacted us saying that it would be difficult to go ahead and do our event, but we told them that we just wanted to prepare for one picture,” says Alonso. “But they couldn’t guarantee the safety of everyone.”
At this stage Alonso was on the first floor of a nearby restaurant overlooking Hachikō’s statue, and decided to Tweet a ‘selfie’ in which he’d look down on all the fans. In doing so he inadvertently burst the dam of anticipation. Hachikō’s patience was inexhaustible; that of Alonso’s fans less so… and now they knew where he was. As Fernando and F1 Racing photographer Steven Tee gazed down upon the crowd below, it dawned on them that said crowd was heading in their direction.
“It was at that moment we realised it was time to get out,” says Steven, who found himself tasked with helping Fernando make a hasty exit before a riot ensued. “We legged it through Shibuya station, and he said: ‘You know where you’re going, Steven, I’m following you!’ It was mayhem. People were falling over each other to take selfies with him. Finally, I managed to get him through the heaving crowds, into a taxi and
YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING STEVEN, I’M FOLLOWING YOU! ALONSO BEATS A RETREAT
he was safe. It wasn’t dissimilar to the scenes when The Beatles arrived at Haneda airport…”
The authorities stepped in to restore order, while Fernando cooked up a plan to make up for the disappointment. “A lot of the fans who were at Shibuya are coming to the fan zone autograph session at the circuit as well,” he says. “So I’m going to meet them there instead, shake hands and do a picture with everyone there.”
And despite the missed opportunity in Tokyo, there might – whisper it – be repeat attempts at other cities around the world next year, albeit with a more planned approach to crowd control.
As the crowds began to subside to normal levels, the Shibuya Crossing became merely hectic. The Hachikō statue maintained its silent vigil. Still patiently waiting…